Laredo Air Force Station (
FUDS Site No. K06TX021600)
was a
Cold War radar station of the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...
in Texas.
It had an
AN/FPS-17
The AN/FPS-17 was a ground-based fixed-beam radar system that was installed at three locations worldwide, including Pirinçlik Air Base (formerly Diyarbakir Air Station) in south-eastern Turkey, Laredo, Texas and Shemya Island, Alaska.
This syste ...
, an
AN/FPS-78 (used during the 1962
Cuban Missile Crisis'
Falling Leaves radar network), and the last
Avco AN/FSS-7 SLBM Detection Radar
Avco Corporation is a subsidiary of Textron which operates Textron Systems Corporation
and Lycoming.
History
The Aviation Corporation was formed on March 2, 1929, to prevent a takeover of CAM-24 airmail service operator Embry-Riddle Compa ...
. Northeast of
Laredo, Texas
Laredo ( ; ) is a city in and the county seat of Webb County, Texas, United States, on the north bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, across from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Laredo has the distinction of flying seven flags (the flag of th ...
, located at and supported by the city's
Laredo Air Force Base
Laredo Air Force Base, is a since-deactivated Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) installation of the Air Training Command (ATC) in Laredo, Texas. The facility was originally established as Laredo Army Air Field, a World War II U.S. Army Air For ...
, Laredo AFS tracked
White Sands Missile Range
White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established as the White Sands Proving Ground on 9July 1945. White Sands National P ...
tests, provided satellite tracks such as for the 1958
Sputnik III to
Project Harvest Moon, and sent missile warning data to
Cheyenne Mountain Complex
The Cheyenne Mountain Complex is a Space Force installation and defensive bunker located in unincorporated El Paso County, Colorado, next to the city of Colorado Springs, at the Cheyenne Mountain Space Force Station, which hosts the activities o ...
's
CCPDS computers.
Laredo test site
[{{cite report, date=January 19, 1981, title=Modernization of the WWMCCS Information System (WIS) , url=http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a095409.pdf , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224101313/http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a095409.pdf , url-status=live , archive-date=December 24, 2013 , format=ADA095409, publisher=]United States House Committee on Armed Services
The U.S. House Committee on Armed Services, commonly known as the House Armed Services Committee or HASC, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is responsible for funding and oversight of the Department of De ...
, access-date=2014-04-21
Installations of the United States Air Force in Texas
Aerospace Defense Command military installations
Air Defense Command radar stations
1956 establishments in Texas
1980 disestablishments in Texas
Military installations established in 1956
Military installations closed in 1980